


Flashover

by SuddenlySullen



Category: DCU
Genre: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Enemas, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Sexual Violence, The Abuse of Jason Todd: Chapter 53496, Torture, absolutely do not try this at home, like a lot of hurt, none of these fluids belong where they're going
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 04:54:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21265397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuddenlySullen/pseuds/SuddenlySullen
Summary: "Tell me, Jason. Where is our dear old bat, hm?" J keeps flicking the lighter between words. "Do you think he even knows you're gone yet? It's been a week? Two weeks? You know, I've lost count. Maybe he just doesn't care that you aren't around. Does anyone even miss you?"





	Flashover

Harley follows Joker's car as he weaves through back streets. She watches from a safe enough distance, headlights off, until he parks at an old farmhouse outside of town. The sound of pigs squealing echoes through the air almost so loud that she can't hear her own engine at all. With a grin and a bounce to her step, she grabs the backpack carrying a carton of eggs, funnel, and gallon of milk from her passenger seat. Grinning, she tosses an egg on one of his windows with a satisfying splat. She's barely lobbed half of the eggs onto his windshield when a shrieking sound that is suspiciously more human than pig seems to be coming from the barn. When her heart starts to race, she thinks about leaving. Her curiosity gets the better of her, though, and she finds herself climbing up a stack of hay bales and into the hay loft of the barn to see what's happening. Hiding behind a pile of hay bales, she peeks down to the floor below. Nothing she knows of the Joker could have prepared her for the sight in front of her. 

Robin sits on his hands and knees. He's been stripped completely naked and looks so young. His face is twisted into the worst grimace Harley has ever seen. J stands behind him, unnervingly casual, with the spout of a gas can forced into him. It turns her stomach. She gags and heaves, trying to keep herself silent as she pulls her phone from her pocket. Her hands shake and she drops it, grateful for the noise of pigs screaming outside to drown out the sound. She texts Ivy 'SOS' with a link to her GPS coordinates. When she looks up again J has pulled the gas can away, leaving Robin shaking, but still upright. 

"Maybe that will improve the smell around here. I can't tell what's worse, you or the fucking swine." J tosses the can against the wall with a dull thunk and pulls a lighter from his pocket. He flicks it in one hand. "Better keep all that in there, Jason. Wouldn't want to accidentally light a fire under your ass, would we?"

There are tears streaming down Robin's face and still, he stays silent. Harley wants to yell at him to just do what J says so that he'll get bored and leave. She's frozen to the spot, though. Her mouth refuses to open. The tears coming from her own eyes sting her cheeks, but she can't bring herself to stop watching long enough to wipe them away. 

"Tell me, Jason. Where is our dear old bat, hm?" J keeps flicking the lighter between words. "Do you think he even knows you're gone yet? It's been a week? Two weeks? You know, I've lost count. Maybe he just doesn't  _ care _ that you aren't around. Does  _ anyone _ even miss you?" 

Harley's fingers curl into the hay. Looking down at her phone, she can see that Ivy saw her message, but there hasn't been a response. She turns to look out the loft for any sign that Ivy is on her way. A dull thump draws her attention back to the scene below just in time for her to see J draw his foot back and kick Robin in the side of the stomach. Robin grunts and Harley doesn't miss the trickle of gasoline dripping down between his legs. His whole body is shaking. Dark hair is matted down to his face with a thick layer of sweat. 

The sound of wood splintering makes Harley sob with relief. A blur of green vines whips around J's ankles to suspend him in the air before Ivy herself walks in. Harley sits on the edge of the hay loft and drops to the floor in front of Robin, flashing Ivy a forced smile. Ivy shakes her head. The vines slam J into the floor, dragging him screaming from the barn. Harley can hear the pigs' excitement outside and assumes that Ivy is finally having the fun that she's been wanting to with J. Robin sits completely still on the floor, staring straight ahead at the destroyed door. Harley drops to her knees in front of him. 

"Hey, sweetheart." Her voice comes out slow in a way she didn't know it still could be. It reminds her of someone she didn't think she was anymore. She runs the fingers of both hands down his face, then cups his cheeks. "I'm gonna get you out of here, okay, but we gotta get that stuff outta you first. Alright, pumpkin pie?" 

Robin's eyebrows pinch together. His face quivers and Harley knows that look. It's the look she wore herself the first time someone told her that she was leaving and it was going to be okay without J. 

"Just listen to my voice, okay, sweetpea?" She pushes the hair off his forehead. "Everything is gonna be okay. I gotcha. Can you listen to me, baby?" 

With a noticeable sag to his posture, Robin nods. He leans his face just slightly into Harley's touch on his cheek. She brings the other hand back up to run through his hair and he makes a choked sound, somewhere between a sigh and a sob. Harley's chest aches to look at him. 

"Alright, kitten, it's okay. You gotta let it out now, okay?" She leans forward to kiss his forehead. "I know it hurts and I know it hurts on the inside. Just let go, baby. It's okay." She knows she's babbling, but she's trying to keep him focused on her instead of J's shouting from outside. 

Robin lurches forward to press his face into the side of her neck as the gas starts to dribble out of him. Harley shushes him softly, keeping one hand in his hair. 

"That's it. Good boy. It's okay, you're doing perfect. Let it all out, sweetheart."

He's sobbing, smearing tears into the side of her neck. His cries are soft, shaking noises that tear through his whole body and make her heart ache even more for him. The smell of gas is starting to make her head spin. When she looks down, the puddle beneath him has reached her knees and is still spreading across the floor. He seems to have stopped leaking fluid, though.

"Oh, baby, I'm so sorry. We have to get you to a doctor, okay? We can go and they'll-"

"No!" Robin yanks himself back from her neck. "No, no, mommy, no, no, no-"

"Okay." She brings her hand up to his face again. "Okay. Shhh. I won't force you. You get to decide. There's still gonna be some of that inside of you, though, and we need to get it out right now. I have milk and it's not the best, but it'll help the burns until we can get you some medicine, okay, bunny?" 

Harley doesn't move until Robin nods and looks up at her. "Just you."

"Just me, bubs. I won't let anything bad happen to you." She shrugs the bag off her shoulder and pulls out the gallon of milk and funnel. "It's still a little cold, okay, muffin? It'll be different, but it's gonna stop some of that burn and get the rest of that out of there, okay?"

She flinches at the sight of his backside. The insides of his thighs are bright red, starting to form angry welts. She can’t imagine how bad it must be on the inside. She rests one hand on the small of his back, rubbing in slow circles. 

“I know this is gonna hurt for a minute, sugar. You just gotta be tough for a few more minutes and then we can go home.”

Robin nods. He turns to look back at her with wide eyes. 

“Just keep listening to me, okay?” She takes a deep breath in, then starts singing a lullaby that she remembers from her own childhood. 

“ _ Yesterday a child came out to wonder, caught a dragonfly inside a jar”  _

Her hands shake, but she brings the funnel up and presses as gently as she can into Robin.

“ _ Fearful when the sky was full of thunder, and tearful at the falling of a star, _

The hand on his back leaves so that she can pick up the gallon of milk. His eyes squeeze shut and she catches her voice hitching from how hard her own body is shaking. 

_ “And the seasons they go round and round, and the painted ponies go up and down. We’re captured on a carousel of time. ” _

Robin whines as the milk is flowing into him. Harley tries her best to keep her voice even so that he can focus on her. 

“ _ We can’t return we can only look behind from where we came and go round and round and round in a circle game,” _

She sets the milk down and pulls the funnel away. The milk starts to pour out of him immediately. His body seems to droop when he heaves another sob. Harley moves to kneel in front of him again, pulling him forward into her arms. 

_ “Then the child moved ten times round the seasons, skated over ten clear frozen streams,” _

Robin lets himself finally drop to the ground. His arms wind their way around Harley’s waist and grip the back of her jacket while he lays on her lap. She moves her hands through his hair and down his back, singing louder to drown out J’s increasingly frenzied screaming from outside.

_ “Words like ‘when you’re older’ must appease him/ _

_ and promises of ‘someday’ make his dreams/ _

_ And the seasons they go round and round/ _

_ And the painted ponies go up and down/ _

_ We’re captured on a carousel of time/ _

_ We can’t return we can only look/ _

_ Behind from where we came/  _

_ And go round and round and round in a circle game.” _

“Sorry, doll,” Ivy’s voice comes from the doorway. “We need to go. Someone’s coming.”

Robin jumps, gripping tighter to Harley. Harley nods, still petting his hair. 

“It’s okay, kiddo. I still gotcha. We’re gonna get out of here and go home. I’ll take care of you, baby boy. Don’t you worry. No one’s ever gonna hurt you like that again.”

When Harley starts to stand, Robin comes easily. She moves his arms for him, guiding them underneath her jacket so that she can shrug it off. It doesn’t fit at all when she slides his arms into it. The sleeves barely reach past his elbows, but he pulls it tight around himself just the same. Harley finds one of his hands and laces their fingers together so that she can lead him out to her car where Ivy is already waiting with the engine running. Harley slides into the backseat with Robin laying across it so that his head can rest in her lap. She pulls a blanket down from the rear window, thankful that she still has it there from when she was sleeping in it herself. Her fingers run through his hair. It’s cold and damp with sweat, but when her nails drag across his scalp, he leans towards the touch. As the car moves down the street, his eyes start to drift closed. Harley wonders if he had been allowed to sleep at all since J had him.

“I need to borrow your car,” Ivy mumbles. “There’s somebody I need to go have a talk with. I sent an aloe plant to your place.”

Harley nods idly, barely listening. She watches the rise and fall of Robin’s chest for the entire drive back to her apartment. When they get there, she practically has to carry him inside. His legs wobble with every step. They both smell like a combination of pig and gasoline and sweat, but bathing is far from the front of her mind. She guides Robin to lie down in her bed, meaning to go bathe herself and sleep on the couch, but he clings to her shirt. She’s dragged down into the bed with him where he curls up on his side using her stomach as a pillow. He’s bigger than her, she thinks, but looks so small. Her hand finds its way to his hair and cards through the tangles until she, too, falls asleep.


End file.
